The Second Generation
by Frectozhae
Summary: When researchers studied the Flare, they realized that a subset of the population was able to not only survive direct contact with the virus, but developed powerful abilities. When their first try at studying these individuals turned against them, they couldn't help but give it another try. Special kids sent into upgraded mazes. What could go wrong?


**The Second Generation**

"I think this generation is ready."

The cold voice came from the end of the table, where an ageless woman sat. Her blond hair was tightly bound behind her head. Her white coat was immaculate and pristine. It was used more to show her status as a doctor than to cover her clothes in operations.

The other doctors around the table exchanged doubtful looks. Their faces were only lit by the soft shine of their computer display, giving them all the information they needed to arrive at a conclusion.

"Ava, we agreed to not rush into this. You know what happened last time." The blond woman nodded slightly, she remembered the events well. "Another mistake would give our enemies the power necessary to crush us."

The man sitting next to Ava shook his head. He was the only one not wearing a doctor coat, instead having opted for military garb. "I don't agree. The first escapees are a hit against us for sure, but we are hunting them down as we speak. They won't be able to resist much longer."

The other doctor snorted in derision, "I'll believe it when I'll see it. Until Tobi is dead and buried, they have a power we cannot touch."

"This is why this generation is increasingly important," intervened Ava. "I remember well our past mistakes. The Five supposed to be so great and to help us finally not only find a cure, but crush our enemies."

She pulled out the filed in her computer, projecting them on the screen of all of her colleagues.

The first image was the picture of a young blond man, barely an adult. His blond locks arrived to his shoulders. His piercing blue gaze was fixed straight ahead, a slight smile of confidence on his face.

The second image was of a larger man with long white hair descending down his back. He looked older than the first one. He had tattoos descending from his eyes down to his jaw. His goofy smile made the imposing looking man more approachable.

The third image was another man. His black hair descended in a loose ponytail behind his back. He looked even younger than the first image, barely a teenager in the photo. However, unlike the two first photos where the happiness shone through, the black eyes lacked any emotion. Only a cold, empty stare.

The next photo was even creepier than the third. The man's long hair descended straight to his hips, not bound by anything. He was taller than all the previous men, his build really thin. His skin was unnaturally pale. His eyes had been altered, looking like slits instead of the round pupils of humans. The corner of his eyes was tattooed in purple extending like two small daggers towards his nose. The most troubling of the photo was the maniac grin. It was a sadistic smile that everyone in the room was intimately familiar with.

The last photo was marked in red with the mention of "ENEMY N.1". The man's face was framed by a long metal protector that surrounded most of his face. He looked to be in the middle of his thirties. His spiky gray hair was cut short, barely falling on the tip of the metal ornament. The man's face was decorated by three small tattoos, all in the form of a red line. His eyes were narrowed forward, emotion absent in his stare. However, everyone in the room shuddered at his sight. The man that had almost made WICKED fall down to their knees.

"I remember when we first found Itachi and discovered that in some particular case, the Flare didn't kill or mutated the person into a Crank. It fused with the person and instead mutated the person's genes. Gave them some abilities most of us could only dream of. Itachi's eyes were the first of many mutations were registered in the world."

She paused as the five images let place to other, blurry images. Pictures of a man controlling a forest, making trees grow as he battled another with the same eyes as Itachi, surrounded in a ball of fire.

"We decided that we needed to have our own Chosen with us. We needed to understand the process that led to their creation. The idea was simple; we would simply include them in some of our tests. That's where our only mistake was. We put them all together with a bunch of other kids."

Another image appeared on the screen, showing the picture of one of the mazes they had built for their tests. The difference was the maze had been all but destroyed, the creatures created to eliminate the weak and put fear in the kids dead on the ground.

"We underestimated the power of adults having lived in the external world surrounded by cranks. They were used to deal with the most dangerous situations in the world. Even with their memory wiped, the maze wasn't even close to being adjusted to their combined powers."

The photo was replaced by a video showing a completely destroyed wasteland, a destroyed building standing in the middle of lake. A man was on a wave, directing it with one hand. Another was appearing and disappearing in flashes of yellow, moving faster than anyone could see. The large man was engaging with the black-haired man in a fight, moving so fast they were merely a blur. A giant frog and Serpent fought further away. The last man was simply standing in front of a full battalion of men, all on their knees staring into his swirling red eyes.

"We still have no idea how they got their memories back, but they fought us hard when they did. They killed everyone in the building, immunes included. The only person that was salvaged was Orochimaru, now our strongest asset in the war. The others managed to escape. They haven't been seen or detected since then, merely traces of their passage."

The video ended in black as an acid spray coming from Orochimaru missed the large man and dissolved the camera.

Everyone looked at each other as the now familiar video ended the same question in mind. How could they oppose such terrifying power? They were all normal human, and while they knew from experience that Chosen could be killed by normal means, they were still terrifyingly powerful.

"We need our own Chosen. Oro is good, but he cannot fight all four of them at once," said Ava, her eyes shifting from one person to the other, "We haven't made a single mistake. We recruited them as children. We trained them, we oversaw their abilities develop. We know the extent of their power. We upgraded the selected mazes to challenge them. We have countermeasures in place. They would be separated in groups of five by each maze. You all know our timetables. You all know that we need to have the power to create and upgrade people with abilities. This makes sense."

Silence fell on the room, as everyone pulled up the files. Each one delved into the fifteen files. The fifteen children they had found. They had searched for years, with the help of Orochimaru. They only had managed to find eighteen of them, three of them having died in their capture. The girl that had fallen off the ledge and died on the ground. The sister of one, dying trying to kill Orochimaru. The cousin of another, dying at his own hands in an act of vengeance.

One by one the doctors read the files. They all realised eventually the need to execute the plan as proposed. One by one, they fell in line with their leader, Ava.

Seeing that all of her colleagues were now agreeing with her, she nodded to herself in pleasure. Her pet project was finally being put to good use.

She sent three video profiles on the screen, the three first children sent into the maze.

The first kid looked almost feral, his pupil were small black dots. His canines were sharp and one was extended over his bottom lips. His short brown hair on his head was flowing in the wind. Two large red tattoos on his cheeks were pointing down. He was astride of a large white dog, running through a practice course, jumping on walls and demonstrating an agility uncommon to normal dogs.

"This is Kiba. He's going to be the first sent to Maze A. He is a particular case as both himself and a dog have mutated together. We will then send the dog in the maze alongside himself. He has shown the ability to transform himself into a feral state or even to fuse with the dog. The dog gives us a comparative for animals, giving us the ability to examine the similar patterns in both brains."

The video was replaced by a second video. The girl in the video was tall and slender. Her long blond hair reached the end of her back. She smiled at the camera in an almost too confident smile.

"This is Ino, the first entrée in B. She has abilities that relates to the mind. She cannot read-them, as far as we know, but she is able to send her consciousness into other bodies. The reason we are sending her first is because of the danger it represents here, but out there, it is more or less harmless."

The final video started, showing a black-haired teenager. He was older, almost an adult, but he still looked childish. He was pretty short and small in build. He was lying down in his cot, reading a book.

"This is Shisui. He is one our most interesting subject. He has developed the same mutation as Itachi, the red eyes with spinning comas. Unlike him, he doesn't use illusions, he prefer to fight hand to hand and speed past his opponent. He is without contest the fastest Chosen we have ever seen since Minato. Because of the nature of the eyes' evolution, we are sending him in the harshest conditions possible, in Maze number C."

The video stopped as Ava gathered everyone's attention back to her. "We will send all of them tomorrow at the normal time. The pattern is going to be in alternation between Chosens and Immunes. It is important for everybody to realize that this test is going to be closely monitored. As such, it is possible that one of our subjects reacts poorly and either is killed by the Immunes or kills the Immune more probably. It is important to note that those events are accounted for and expected. Immunes are not cheap, but Chosen are truly rare. It has taken us the better part of a decade to find eighteen in total. You all also know our added defensive mechanism in case of an attack by the Original Five."

She looked around the room, "Any questions?" she asked. Nobody piped up, "If that's all, I'm going to wish you all a good day, I'll prepare for tomorrow. Janson, the three first kids needs to be sedated tonight. Try not to provoke them into a fight, we can't afford to lose more men."

The man to her right nodded with a smile, "Don't worry, I'll lead them to Oro, he'll take care of containing them while my team works its magic."

Ava smiled at the man, "Great. To all, let's us wish that this experience will give us a closer look on The Flare and Cranks in general."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Kiba woke up with a groan, his head pounding at the rhythm of his heartbeat. It felt like someone had danced on his skull for the whole night. His dreamy state was chased away immediately when he realised that he was in movement at the moment. His ears was picking up metallic sounds. Almost like a chain being pulled. He opened his eyes with a start, and looked around. Beside him, large crates filled with supplies and some bags of foods were in the grilled cage.

He could see the large form of Akamaru lying on the ground next to a barrel of what smelled like meat. The sound of the dog's heartbeat calmed him like a soothing lullaby.

He didn't panic as he looked around. He could see the metallic shaft in which he was currently travelling at high speed upwards. He stopped himself from moving, an instinctual fear of falling freezing his movements.

As he looked around, another realisation popped into his head. He couldn't remember anything. He had no idea who he was. He knew his own name; he knew who the dog was. He could remember how to walk, how to move his body. Even theoretical knowledge about stuff was available, but everything that had to do with memory was a goner.

He stood up straight with big eyes. Why couldn't he remember anything? The more he tried to remember, the more it seemed distant and fleeting, like trying to catch water. It left him with a big hole in his heart. A feeling of void that left the trace of heartbreak. The aching pain of loss took him as he mourn for a second, allowing himself to delve into his emotions for barely a moment. He mourned the unknown.

The moment passed and he took back control of his emotions easily. He could almost remember being taught that emotions didn't have its place when trying to figure out problems.

His mind was already charting all the information he could about his situation in a practiced manner. Whatever it is that he did previously, he was obviously used to being in trouble.

The metallic cage seemed solid and probably wouldn't open easily. Not that he wanted to open it. He preferred staying relatively still than break the cage. He knew he couldn't fly, and he couldn't see the bottom of the shaft. The bags and boxes were filled with produce, all basic stuff. The memory loss was an even bigger mystery, but he had no clue how to even react at that point.

"Heh, fuck it," he said aloud, lying back down and closing his eyes. He didn't know where he was going, but he couldn't do anything about it. The absence of his past was grating him, but he could get over it, he wasn't one to stick to something as mental as trying to find a memory.

The cage started to decelerate and finally stopped. He had reached whatever his destination was supposed to be. The shaft was silent with barely any light illuminating the interior of the cage. He stood back up, hesitating to wake up the giant dog. He would be useful in a fight, but then again, he didn't even know if he wanted to fight the people who would be there.

He also knew that the dog really hated to be woken up. A faint familiar feeling of teeth on his leg convinced him it was better to let him sleep.

A loud electronic sound was heard in the shaft making the boy wince at the noise before the ceiling of the shaft opened to blinding light, making the boy close his eyes in pain.

"The Box is up!" he heard yell further away. The voice came of a younger boy, by Kiba's guess.

"What the hell? It isn't supposed to come back up for another month." A second voice. An older guy, probably around Kiba's own age.

"Well it's here now! Maybe there's another Greenie?" Another voice chimed in. Kiba noted that they were getting closer. The top of the cage was still closed, and he could see the lock securing the door. He could probably break through it, but it would take him a few seconds. Time he couldn't spend ramming his shoulder into a metallic fence. His acute sense of hearing perked up, noticing the amount of people running towards him. At least twenty by his estimate, but it could be more. That would pose more of a problem. He prepared himself, putting his hand in his pouch and grabbing a kunai. He kept it hidden from view, waiting for his moment.

"Vincent, go get Alby, he needs to see this," said a fourth voice with a different accent. They were almost there on him. One of them stopped running in his direction and came back from where he came. He could hear the footsteps going further away from him.

"Gally, you're first in. You three get ready to help him. He might be a bit rowdier after being sent up than Chuck was last week," continued the accented voice. A young voice replied, but the words escaped his ears as he concentrated his attention on readying to defend himself and Akamaru. He could hear Akamaru starting to move a bit more in his sleep, probably a sign he was waking up.

Finally the group reached him. He could see immediately that they were all teenagers, some older than others. They were all covered in dirt and mud and some of them in blood. Their smell was enough to make his head wobble as they reached the opening. He clutched his head with one hand, the combination of the light and the smell of teenagers that haven't taken a shower were enough to worsen his already bad headache. Still, a feeling of hope started to build in his gut. He had been expecting armed resistance, not a few teenagers.

"What the hell is that thing!" asked someone over him. A new voice to Kiba. He looked up to see a muscled teenager looking down at Akamaru. The others all started to talk at the same time, saying it was a wolf or some other kind of animal to eat.

Kiba's eyes steeled over as the large teen and two other boys opened the ceiling of his cage.

He was pissed.

He had been put into a random cage like an animal, he'd been dosed into sleep like someone without any balls to fight. They had even gotten Akamaru. Then he realised that the people he was now surrounded by were boys that mistook a dog for a god damn cattle.

When the three boys jumped into the cage, Kiba didn't wait a second. His hand darted out of his kunai pouch as he blurred into motion. He kicked the weakest looking one, a small teen that couldn't have been much more than thirteen. The boy dropped to the ground, as the group circling his cage started to shout intelligibly. The other two boys looked at him with a glare and anger in their stance. Kiba could see that they hadn't expected a fight.

Kiba could have cared. He chose not to.

He punched the other boy, a slender black guy in the stomach, folding him in two as the big teen tried to grab him. He batted the hands away from him and kicked him straight in the chest, spinning in the air as he kicked. The teen crashed in the metallic bars of the cage. His back slammed on the wall and he slid down on the ground. He tried to step back up, but Kiba was already there. His kunai tapped against the guy's jugular, stopping him in his tracks. Steely eyes met angered ones.

The crowd over them had stilled, the reactions dying down. It parted, letting another guy through. He was well-built, with black skin. From everybody's reaction, Kiba gathered that he was the leader of their group. They all looked to him before doing anything else. The teen didn't look pissed, at the complete opposite of the one he held at knife-point.

He looked tired, as if doing this was taking something out of him.

"Put down the knife, man, everything is all right."

His voice was soothing, non-confrontational. Kiba still wanted to simply kill the boy in front of him and attack the rest. He could almost feel something in him, an animal instinct that reacted aggressively outwards.

He almost did. What changed was Akamaru finally waking up.

The large dog stood up on his feet, making the crowd all back away in fear. Even the leader's eyes were fixed on the large animal with caution. The dog didn't give them the light of day. He walked drowsily to Kiba and nudged his elbow with his head as an affectionate move.

He understood what the dog meant, as he felt he always had. Akamaru didn't perceive them as a threat and, without knowing why and simply trusting his instinct, he trusted his judgement more than anything else. He lowered the kunai and put it in his pouch.

The tension dropped as the flaring teen backed away and climbed back up. Kiba passed a hand on Akamaru's fur before focusing on the leader over them, still looking at them. He could a lot of the tension in his shoulders was gone. He still looked at him with wary eyes, often shifting his eyes to the dog.

"What's going on? Who are you? What have you done to me?"

The man sighed and crouched down to sit on the side of the cage, "Don't worry, it's completely normal. My name's Alby. You've just been sent up in the Box. I'm assuming you don't have any memories, just like us. It's fine, it happened to all of us. Welcome to the Glade," he said handing a hand towards Kiba.

Kiba took it.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Even if Ino could remember anything from her past, she still was sure she hadn't ever been as confused as she was right now.

She had woken up in a metal cage going up a metallic shaft, surrounded by boxes and crates of supplies and food. She had tried to get out of the thing and had almost managed to do it by opening the top of the cage by using her kunais in her pouch. She had managed to crack it open when she reached the ceiling that suddenly opened to a bright sunshine.

She had been greeted by four girls forming the Council, as they called it. They had brought her to the hut she was sitting in.

The hut was well built; obviously a lot of skill had gone into its construction. The four girls had taken seats all around her. Ino's head was hurting like crazy, and she was having the hardest time analysing all the information her brain was sending to her. It felt like her brain was always reaching for information that simply wasn't there.

"Hey, you there?" asked the girl in front of her. She was tall, with a brown skin and loose dark hair. Her eyes were cold and piercing. Ino almost felt intimidated by them. She was wearing a padded coat, something to protect against cold temperature. Ino could see the extra-padding added on top of the coat, the scratched leather offering some protection against something.

Ino nodded her head before wincing, "Sorry. Real bad headache."

The girl leaning on the wall next to her nodded in sympathy. She also had brown skin, but her hair was braided into dreadlocks. Unlike the other girl's piercing look, that one had a soft smile. She looked pleasant to be around. She wore the same style of garb that the first one wore, but with different scratches and a long gouge on the side of her right arm.

"My name is Ximena," said the first girl sitting straight in front of her, "I am the leader of the Icers. You are clearly confused, but don't worry, that's what happens when you first come up. Welcome to the Spring. You'll be living in here," she showed the hut around her, "Until we manage to get out. There are a lot of rules around here, but I'll let the others explain it to you, I have to get back to the group."

She turned to another girl, the one that had been almost downright glaring at Ino since she had arrived. "Beth, let's go, they need us. Sonya," she said addressing the blond girl sat on a nearby chair, "If there's anything don't hesitate to come to me."

The blond girl nodded and the two girls exited by the entrance, leaving a really confused Ino with the two remaining girls. The pleasant looking girl sighed and sat in the chair just vacated by Ximena.

"That wasn't exactly the greatest explanation ever," she said lightly. "No shit," Ino grumbled under her breath.

She gave her a look, "She does have a good reason to just leave you here. Beth and her are our best fighters out there, we can't really afford to have both of them out of the fight for the day, it would simply cost us too much."

Ino shook her head, "The fight? What do you even mean? Where I am? What is this Spring or these Icers, or anything like that?"

The girl sighed once more and gave a look to Sonya, "I'll explain everything, don't worry. My name's Harriet, I'm a member of the Council with Sonya, Ximena and Beth. At us four, we take most of the big decisions around here. Ximena acts like she's the leader with the power, but she's mostly the leader our daily excursions."

"What do you remember from before the Cage?" asked the blond girl.

Ino shrugged, her eyebrows knit in consternation, "Almost nothing. I know that my name's Ino, I remember like knowledge, but almost no memories."

Both girls suddenly gave her their full attention, startling the blond newcomer, " _Almost_ no memories? You remember something?"

"It's kinda weird, it's not really memories, more like things I know how to do, that I know I learned and the emotions and pain and all that came with it, but not the memory in itself. Like I know how to fight, and I remember getting hit a lot until I learned, but I don't remember getting hit per se, I just know it. I remember the instinctual knowledge, but nothing else."

The two girls exchanged a look, causing Ino to be worried, "What? Is that not normal?"

Harriet shook her head, "Nah. We generally only remember our names and stuff like that. We remember skills, but nothing associated with it."

Sonya shrugged beside her, "It doesn't really matter, it's only better for us if you know how to fight really."

"Right, you said something about a fight?" asked Ino. She felt an almost desire to test her mettle, like a taste for battle she had previously developed was emerging once more.

"Yeah, we'll get to that. Basically, all the girls that live here are called the Icers. We live in a large circle with vegetation that we call the Spring. It's going to be easier to explain if we just show you."

They both stood up, and left the hut by the door, causing Ino to follow. She walked out into the warmth of the sun and looked around her. The vegetation was green and luxurious with many trees.

However, as her eyes looked a bit beyond her immediate surrounding, she saw high walls made of pure ice. She could see exactly the place where snow started to spot on the ground and where the vegetation froze and died.

"That is why we're called Icers," started Harriet, "We're stuck here. Behind these walls, there's a maze made entirely of ice. We need skates to cross it. Pass that and there's only a cliff, with ledges that shifts during the night. The only way out, is by escalating the cliff. It completely surrounds us. No way out."

Ino looked at the walls of ice, "But why? Why are we here?" Sonya shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine. We have no idea what we're doing here, but we have to get out. That's the only thing that matters."

A loud scream was heard in the distance. Harriet and Sonya both tensed, causing Ino to look around alarmed. "What was that?" she asked.

Both girls looked darkly at the frozen walls, "That was the scream of one of us falling."

Ino looked at them in worry, "It happens often?"

Both girls shook their head.

"So if I understand, there's a cliff that we need to escalate to be able to flee. Where does the fighting comes in?"

"The fighting is the reason people fall from the cliff," Harriet began, "They don't fall on their own. There's things protecting the outer layer, we call them Shades. They resemble dragons, but are partly mechanical. They never attack here, they don't seem to be able to climb higher than the walls of ice and the walls close at nights. During the day, they're occupied defending the Mountain, as we call it."

Both girls went back inside the hut, causing Ino to follow them. They all sat down in the chairs they had just left.

"So I guess you've been trying for some time to climb that wall?" asked Ino.

"About two years?" replied Sonya, checking with Harriet who nodded.

Ino's jaw dropped, "Two _years_? How the hell does a cliff takes you two years to climb?"

Harriet grimaced, "Well, it took a bit more than a year just mapping all the different part of the first maze. Then, we had to climb the damn thing, and we realised quickly that we had to be all of us to even stand a chance. We can't afford to go out there each day, we wouldn't have any food or be able to stock up on weapons, create tactics. We go out each ten days, and we prepare for the rest of them."

"Right now, the rest of us are out there," continued Sonya, "divided into two groups. The climbers who are agile and fast, and the fighters whose only job is to fight with the Shades."

Ino nodded her head. The confusion in her head was starting to calm down; leaving a clarity that hasn't been there since she woke up. She knew the situation, and while there were many questions to be asked, nobody had the answers and it didn't serve anything to ask them. However, now she knew exactly how she could help her new community.

"Let's join them, then," said Ino, standing up.

Harriet and Sonya exchanged a surprised glance before grabbing her and sitting her down. "Not today rookie. This is not the minors and we cannot afford our newcomer to try and fight something out of her skills. Ximena talked about rules. That's one of them. All the Rookies must be home guarding for the duration of time they are the newest Rookie. So until they sent out someone new, you're stuck here."

Ino started to protest, but she was cut quickly by the two Council members.

"Listen, we don't doubt you know how to fight. But you can't go in charging like that. We need total cohesion out there, we need teamwork, plans that have been tested and proved their worth. Shades are not a fair enemy. They are faster, stronger and way more dangerous than anything we've ever met. We cannot beat them as a group of individuals. That's not what we are here. Icers _always_ are there for each other. We're a family. We always need the others."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"Everyone here is some kind of selfish asshole," resumed the girl in front of him. "They all want to obtain the power here. It's almost impressive how much they attack each other's. Hell, nobody has tried to find the way underground since a long time ago."

Shisui nodded as the girl continued to explain the reason he was now standing in a pit that served as a jail. The girl was with him in the pit, something he hadn't failed to mention earlier, only gathering that she had a problem with some "dickless bastard" or other.

It had been quite a ride since he'd woken up. He woke up in a locked cage in an elevator with the biggest headache ever and the panicking realisation that all of his memories were missing.

Of course, his training that he couldn't remember, but still knew about, kicked in and he stopped the panic, and analysed the situation. When the cage reached the end, he waited for more than twenty minutes before someone opened the doors of the shaft. He was welcomed by an armed committee of twenty men strong, all armed with various relatively primitive weapons. They unstrapped his weapons from his pouch and patted him down. Then, when the leader was satisfied, they escorted him through the grassy terrain to a hole with a metal grill door. They all left, leaving only one guard to check on them.

Shisui hadn't tried to escape, even though he had the gut feeling that he was quite a bit faster. He simply followed silently, not answering any questions they asked him. The questions hadn't even made any sense to the raven-haired boy.

"I'm going to need the background of this place," he said finally to the girl. She looked shocked that he was actually able to talk or even that he listened at all to her rant.

"Right, of course, sorry, I tend to talk a lot when I'm stressed," she said in her usual fast voice, "We're in the Oasis right now. This is basically the only habitable terrain around. It's pretty big and every human lives on it. The Oasis is surrounded by the giant stone walls that close at nights. They lead the way to the Underground which is apparently the only way out of here."

Shisui nodded; he had noticed the giant walls in the distance. They were pretty hard to miss. "What about the other people here? How did you all arrive?"

She shrugged, "The same way as you, I suppose. We arrive in the Elevator, with no memories one by one, at the rhythm of one per month, or about that length. We are about, something like a hundred? Yeah close to that, but we lost a lot of people to the Wars."

"The Wars?"

She nodded, her eyes still staring at the outside, "Yeah, the first guy that was here was our leader. He was pretty nice and a good guy all around, but he got killed in the Underground as a Digger. That created a power struggle as clear groups tried to take control. It finished with people trying to kill each other. You're kinda lucky to have missed this, it wasn't a fun period."

"Who are the groups? Who has us locked in here?"

"There are four groups remaining. The smallest one is the all-female group. They all live inside the Walls. They only are in the Oasis in the night when the Creepers are on the surface. They live in there. Then there's the Diggers, the group that supported the original leader. They're not a lot, but they have the advantage of knowing this place inside and out. They know the maze better than any of us and are the only ones that know how to travel underground. Then there's the main, let's say opposition, the Rebels. I'm part of them. We're not that large either, but we're the only side in direct conflict with the one with the power right now. We're the people that left the principal Colony because of the quite tyrannical measures."

"Wouldn't it be better for all of you to simply bury the hatchet and try to escape these walls?"

She shook her head, "I don't anyone other than the Diggers have any delusion about escaping this place. No, this is in in all probability the place where we'll all die. Might as well make it a good place right?"

Shisui nodded and closed his eyes, absorbing all that information as she continued to talk about her philosophy of making this place a home. He started to tune her out. All the important information had pretty much been said already. No, now that he had a bit of information, he could see what was needed to be done. It seemed to him that people were trying to kill each other all over in this place. He didn't need to stay here.

He would need to escape this place, even if that meant he'd do it alone.

Shisui wasn't an overly brave man or anything. He was simply professional. He was in hostile territory, had no idea what happened to him or even who he was before, but he knew how to be professional and he relied on that. He analysed the situation between the local powers. He knew it would be hard to navigate, but unless the girl hadn't mentioned them, he was the only one around with any sort of abilities. In a place where might makes right, it would have been the first thing mentioned.

Then again, a lone girl in a jail wasn't exactly the best source of information around.

He needed more.

Before he made a move, he'd understand exactly the effects and the ramifications of his actions. He wasn't pressed by time; he could go at it methodically. The others had been here for a while from her words. Nothing would change immediately.

 **A/N: Alright! This is kind of an experiment. I don't really expect that this will gain much traction, but I found the concept to be kinda fun to work with. I challenged myself to write a chapter of a story in two hours and this is what my procrastinating brain came up with. I'm probably going to continue this on its own time. It also marks my kinda (hopefully) comeback to the scene of Fanfiction. I honed my skill away from the site, and I think I write okay enough to be serviceable to translate correctly the story I want to tell. Expect somewhat regular updates on either this, my others stories or even new ones!**

 **If there's any critics about the writing as a mechanical thing I would love to hear it! Hell, anything really, it's fun to have feedback to become better.**

 **Anyway, that's that for now. I'll go study, and I should see you guys Thursday or next week if I'm too busy with the job searching and whatnot.**


End file.
